CPM Bankruptcy Update: Abandoning Property (UPDATE)

It’s been about three months since I last looked into the CPM chapter 7 bankruptcy case and, well, not much has happened.

Two Notices of Abandonment of Property were filed along with corresponding Certificates of Service on July 27th and on August 17th. Here is the main part of the July 27th abandonment document (emphasis added):

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 554(a), David R. Kittay, the duly qualified and acting trustee for the estate of the above-captioned debtor [Central Park Media Corporation], intends to and will abandon his right, title and interest in the personal property of the Debtor (described by the Trustee’s professionals as approximately 350 boxes which the debtor’s principal, John O’Donnell, advised would not have any value to anybody, office chairs, computer equipment, office supplies, master tapes, CD’s and DVD rom’s with artwork and samples and old and non-pertinent books and records) located at A Storage Solution, 576 Danbury Road, New Milford, Connecticut 06776 (the “Property”), as burdensome and of inconsequential value to the estate. The estate is currently administratively insolvent and the monthly cost of storing these items is $588. Unless, within fifteen (15) days from the date of service of this Notice, a creditor or other interested party files a written objection and request for hearing with the Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court…and serves a copy of such request on the Office of the United States Trustee, … the Trustee will abandon the Property.

From the August 17th filing (emphasis added):

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 554(a), David R. Kittay, the duly qualified and acting trustee for the estate of the above-captioned debtor [Central Park Media Corporation], intends to and will abandon his right, title and interest in the personal property of the Debtor (described as approximately 17,148 media titles contained in approximately 556 boxes) located at Lebonfon Printing, 1051 de l’Echo Street, Val d’Or, Quebec Canada J9P 4N9 (the “Property”), as burdensome and of inconsequential value to the estate. The estate is currently administratively insolvent and the monthly cost of storing these items is $139.00. Unless, within fifteen (15) days from the date of service of this Notice, a creditor or other interested party files a written objection and request for hearing with the Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court…and serves a copy of such request on the Office of the United States Trustee, … the Trustee will abandon the Property.

September 1st was the deadline for filings of Proof of Claims as well as for Objections (to the intents to abandon property) – that was yesterday. Creditors that have filed a Proof of Claim since June 9th include the City of New York Department of Finance and the New York State Dept. of Tax and Finance.

I think the process may be wrapping up its preliminaries but that’s only a guess since I’m not intimately familiar with bankruptcy proceedings. There are no clear dates set for future hearings on the schedule so I’ll continue to check in on occasion and post any updates.

UPDATE 9/3: This story got linked by Anime Vice and I think the term “abandonment” has the potential to be misinterpreted. So I looked at a glossary of terms (PDF) on the website of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Iowa and that defines Abandonment as “Process by which the debtor’s estate would not benefit by the sale of certain property so the trustee will return it to the debtor” and Abandonment of Property as:

Trustee’s declaration that the trustee has no interest in certain property because of lack of value, debtor’s exemption, or because it is burdensome to the administration of the estate.

So basically those assets that Kittay moved to abandon won’t be going up for auction (at least through this current process) and those items should still be the “personal property” of CPM. I guess I should’ve done a bit more research before hitting the “Publish” button.